


i would've been loved (if i had more time)

by penguinwritesbooks



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alex Mercer Has A Sibling (Julie and The Phantoms), Established Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Gen, M/M, Secret Valentine Exchange, Willie Loves Alex Mercer (Julie and The Phantoms), willie's the world's best bf and it shows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:47:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29447265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penguinwritesbooks/pseuds/penguinwritesbooks
Summary: Happy Valentine's day to @favoritesongsanddreams on tumblr!
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina, Alex Mercer (Julie and The Phantoms) & Original Character(s), Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 57





	i would've been loved (if i had more time)

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentine's day to @favoritesongsanddreams on tumblr!

Alex wasn’t sure what he was expecting to find when he opened his eyes, but it wasn’t this. Willie was on his left, squeezing his hand. Their fingers were interlaced, Alex’s thumb tracing the space on Willie’s wrist where Caleb’s stamp used to be. Luke and Reggie were back at Julie’s, presumably trying to put together a surprise party for him. They’d been more than a little perplexed when he said he wanted to go see his parents on his birthday. Now, as he stood faced with the reality of the situation, he genuinely began to consider leaving and never turning back.

The house in front of him wasn’t the perfect suburban colonial he’d assumed it would be. There was an overgrown garden in the front yard, ivy crawling up the trellises and across the brick walls. The front door was green and the mailbox was painted in splatters of what looked to be every color of paint they could get their hands on. The colors were mixing and turning brown in some places and the word ‘Mercer’ was clearly painted by a child. The white block letters slanted upward and the letter ‘R’ was squished against the end of the mailbox.

Alex glanced at Willie, almost wondering if Julie had found the wrong Amelia Mercer. But then, she’d shown him a photo of her, and there was no denying the fact that the girl in the photo was his little sister. From the lopsided grin to the bright pink hearing aid that was just visible through her hair, it was maybe the most _Millie_ thing he’d ever seen. There was a giggling toddler on her hip, clutching a stuffed panda, and a barefoot teenage girl wearing jeans and a cropped NASA t-shirt on her other side.

Up until that moment, he’d been pretty sure ghosts didn’t have blood. The second Julie said the word ‘uncle’, though, it all rushed to his head and he nearly fainted in the middle of her bedroom. Once he sat down on the edge of her bed, Julie gingerly revealed that the older of his nieces went to school with her. Apparently, her name was Lexi Mercer and she was a year older than Julie. She was in the dance program, and Julie showed him a video of her playing the Lilac Fairy the year prior. Seeing her in a tiara and tutu, a near-perfect replica of Millie, was almost too much.

“You okay?” Willie asked quietly, squeezing his hand.

“Yeah,” he said, nodding. “It’s just… weird. Like I’m invading her privacy?”

“We don’t have to go in, you know. This can wait for another time, or never at all.”

“No, I want to. I’m just nervous. I know Julie said she seemed pretty liberal, but you never know.”

“There’s only one way to find out,” Willie reasoned. Alex took a single deep breath, tightened his grip on Willie’s hand, and poofed them just past the front door.

The first thing he noticed was how cold it was. Growing up, Millie had always complained about how warm their parents kept the house, insisting that it would be better to be cold and have an excuse for more blankets. Glancing around, he grinned at the realization that there were, in fact, incredibly soft blankets piled on all the chairs and couches in the living room. There was a fireplace to his right, picture frames lined up on the mantle. As he got closer to them, he found that the girls’ father wasn’t in any of the photos. Julie had mentioned that Millie was a single mom, but for some reason, he’d assumed that there would be more… something.

There were snapshots from various stages in Lexi’s life and a few pictures of the younger daughter as a baby. Millie was posing with the keys to the house in one of them, and Lexi was a little blurry, presumably having only just beat the camera timer by a second or two.

“Hey, Hotdog, c’mere.” He turned around to find Willie holding up a picture frame that had been on an end table. It was an old photo of them; a 13-year-old Amelia was on Alex’s back, both laughing as he struggled not to drop her.

“Oh,” he whispered, not entirely sure what else to say.

“See? Everything’s okay.” Alex nodded, allowing Willie to stand on his tiptoes to kiss him on the forehead. Over his shoulder, a plate shattered.

“I’m going insane,” Millie said. “That’s impossible.” She slowly turned back to face him, accidentally making eye contact with her brother, who awkwardly raised a hand to wave.

They hadn’t accounted for this. It was noon on a weekday, so they knew Lexi would be in school. What they hadn’t thought of was the possibility that Millie would come home on her lunch break. Alex was _not_ ready for this. Julie had dyed half his hair bubblegum pink, he was wearing a bright yellow Animaniacs crop top Willie had loaned him, and Willie had painted rainbows on the tongues of his shoes.

“Dude,” Willie hissed. “Can she see you?”

“Well I should certainly fucking _hope so_ ,” he responded, refusing to be the first to look away. “Uh, hi? Can you… see me?”

Millie took a few cautious steps forward, reaching out to poke him in the shoulder. When her hand didn’t phase directly through him, all three people in the room shrieked. “Alex?” He nodded, quickly getting tugged into a slightly aggressive hug. “You’re- are you alive?”

“No,” he said. “I wish- you have no idea how much I miss eating ice cream. Dead as ever, unfortunately. Wait, can you see Willie?”

“Who?” she asked.

“He’s- there’s another ghost right here,” he said, patting his boyfriend’s shoulder with an awkward smile.

“And his name is Willie?” When Alex nodded, she shook her head in mock disapproval. “Trying to replace me?”

“No, no,” he insisted. “He’s actually… my boyfriend.” Willie moved to wrap his arms around his waist, pressing a kiss to his shoulder. Millie was quiet for a long moment, before turning and pointing to the space Willie was standing in before.

“If you hurt him,” she scolded. “I’ll re-kill you.”

Alex breathed a sigh of relief, shaking his head. “He’s actually, uh. Babe, kick something.” Willie giggled and picked up a book from the coffee table, using it to wave. “He’s right there.”

“Oh, right.”

“You are taking all of this… shockingly well.”

“Actually, I am losing my mind. I’m just glad to see you again.”

“I’m glad to see you, too. I wish you could meet Willie,” he said sadly.

“Is he cute?” she asked, leaning forward conspiratorially.

“The cutest,” Alex responded, laughing at Willie’s blush.

“I think I’m gonna let you two talk,” he said. “I’ll see you at the museum later?”

“Of course,” Alex said, smiling as he poofed away before turning back to his sister. “Willie left.”

“I’m glad you’re happy,” she said sincerely. “I wish you could meet my daughters - Alexa and Daphne. Lexi reminds me so much of you sometimes it hurts, and Daph has already decided that she wants to be a figure skater when she grows up.”

“I was so worried coming here today,” Alex admitted. “I was worried you’d be like our parents.”

“Oh God no.” Millie shuddered. “I never believed in the same things they did, but the day you left home, that was it. And when I found out you were gone, I just snapped, you know? I moved in with Cora St. James until I graduated, and Mom and Dad were too concerned with their social standing to get the police involved. One kid gay and dead, the other technically missing? They couldn’t handle a scandal like that.”

“So you’re okay with it, then? Me being gay?”

“Hey, I always was,” she said. “You just left home before I got the chance to tell you. Plus, Cora and I weren’t exactly just friends.”

“ _What?_ ” Alex asked, sitting down on the nearest couch.

“I mean, come on,” Millie exclaimed. “You very nearly walked in on us kissing multiple times.”

“I did _not_! Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been afraid you hated me this whole time.”

“I could never,” she promised. “Hey, you should see Lexi’s room!”

“Is she…?”

“Gay? You have no idea. Oh my God, she won’t stop talking about this girl she has a crush on. I swear, at this point, I could paint this Julie perfectly _just_ based on Lexi’s description of her.”

“Julie?” Alex asked, eyes widening. “You don’t mean like, sophomore Julie? Like, ‘knows kind of a lot about Lexi Mercer for someone who doesn’t share any classes with her’ Julie? Like ‘Julie Molina, whose band I’m in’ Julie?” Millie turned to face him, her jaw dropping as she put pieces together in her head.

“ _YOU’RE_ THE DRUMMER WHO ‘LOOKS KIND OF LIKE UNCLE ALEX’?”


End file.
